Monoprice Select Mini Modifications

Published January 19th, 2018

Last week the controller board died on my Monoprice Select Mini. The v1 controller boards appear to be a hard to find item anymore with the only ones available coming
out of China for US$65.00 and at least a month long wait until it gets here. So instead I have decided to replace the Mini's controller board with an Ardrino/RAMPS 1.4/LCD
kit which I have on hand which cost less at a total of about US$35.00 to the door.

Being that the printer is already down and in need of a motion controller board replacement I am going to try and change out and modify a couple additional things which
I have been tempted to do but did not see the point in doing while the printer was up and running. A few additional modifications I may or may not get around to during
this down time include:

Replace the motion controller and LCD screen with a RAMPS 1.4 kit.

Add ventalation needed to keep the Arduino/RAMPS boards cool.

Install an interal power supply to do away with the external brick.

Replace printed accessories which are not black or white.

Replace existing belts with GT2 belts.

Upgrade or replace the existing E3D v6 mount which is showing some wear.

Extend the z axis maximum height as much as possible without needing to buy a new .

The idea is to keep things as cheap as possible so the list may change as I begin working on it this evening. Most of the parts I already have on hand and are available
for use on this printer without the need to spend additional cash. I love the little guy but honestly it is what it is a US$200.00 printer with a small build area not worth
much more then that with decent quality i3 clone kits available for just as much for those wishing to spend the time assembling one. This being said I would like to limit
the money spent on these mods to the cost of the direct replacement motion controller board.

For anyone interested in any of these mods I will be posting my progress as well as information such as resources used and the steps taken for each modification as I go.